Torn Emotions
by Mistress of the Arts
Summary: From Un Fantasma Tra Noi. Imora and Sano fight with their torn emotions, blind to the fact that they really do love each other... Oneshot. SanosukexOC.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin. I do however own Imora Sagara and I do enjoy the series. Please note that ETP allows me to use her account and co-writes with me on my non-GX fanfics like my Twilight one and this. From "Un Fantasma Tra Noi". Please R no flaming though.**

**Torn Emotions**

_How dare he?!_

Imora ground her teeth, her fist tightening, and she slammed it into the tree she was sitting underneath as she watched Sano and Kenshin playing with Ayame and Suzume from across the yard.

Oh, how she wanted to beat the snot out of Sanosuke Sagara.

For more reasons than one, but Imora could do nothing about the past. She had come to Tokyo to seek out Katsu because she had found one of his drawings of her father in an art sale. She had bought the drawing and put it with the doll that Katsu and Sano had made for her more than a decade ago.

She loved Katsu like the brother she always wanted.

However, she hated Sano more than she had hated almost anything. Ever since she laid eyes upon him again, she wanted nothing more than to throttle him.

He irritated her on a new level of irritancy. He irritated her just by being that stubbornly strong man that he was. He had taken on the Sagara name, and not only had he intruded on her personal moment of speaking to her passed father, he had dared to kiss her!

He had kissed her!!

No man had ever dared do such a thing!!

It pissed her off to a level she hadn't thought possible.

How dare he touch her lips with his in a way that shouldn't've been?! How dare he look at her with those overwhelming brown eyes that sent her heart pounding furiously in her chest!? How dare Sanosuke Sagara make emotions she had thought she had long since buried come back into the light?!

There was no one in the world that could hate Sano as much as Imora did right now.

He tormented her in ways that only he could. No one else could make her knees go weak, her face burn, her stomach flip, or make her want to beg for their kiss.

He had taken from her the reality she worked so hard to create. Before Sano had entered her life again, Imora had a simple routine. Eat, sleep, fight, rebel, hide, eat, sleep, and so on.

Now that routine was destroyed along with Imora's false reality. Now she had to face the world and it scared her. Deep down, she was still Daddy's little girl, wanting nothing but for the memories and grief to fade from her bleeding heart.

The Meiji Government had taken from her more than they had taken from anyone.

At least, that's what she believed.

They had used the Sekihoutai and lied to the people the Sekihoutai only wanted to help. Then they had slaughtered them and placed the severed heads on display.

A lump formed in her throat as she remembered that day.

Only nine years old at the time, Imora had run to see if the rumors were true. And just as the rumors said, the Sekihoutai's army's heads were displayed. She had squeezed her way through the crowd to the fence separating the crowd from them and let out a horrified scream at what remained of her father, Captain Sōzō Sagara.

Only at the time, she hadn't noticed a familiar little boy doing the same, trying to claw his way through the fence.

Imora jerked out of the memory and gapped at Sano.

It couldn't have been…

Yet no matter how much she denied it, Imora knew the truth.

That little boy _had_ been Sano…

She had seen with her own eyes how much Sano had really cared about her father. He had been the only family Sano had really ever known.

And deep down, Imora knew she honestly didn't hate Sano. She was angry at herself because she hadn't intended to fall in love with him. She wasn't sure why she had but she had a pretty good hunch that it was fated.

A blush formed as she admitted the truth to herself.

Imora Sagara was in love…

With Sanosuke?!

How in the hell did that even work out?!

As she groaned, her intelligent hazel brown eyes slammed shut, and she hid her face in her hands.

This happened to get a certain tall rebel to notice her.

**---**

Sanosuke paused in playing ball with Little Suzume and Ayame when he finally noticed Imora hiding in the shade of the tree across the yard. He hadn't noticed her before, only glancing to see her murderously glaring at him like usual, and had continued on with his playtime. But Imora had caught his attention seconds ago when she looked completely scared and even a little embarrassed.

He sighed inwardly.

How much longer was he going to have to deal with their crazy relationship?

Sanosuke could've sworn that it was the same thing with Megumi all over again. Only this time, Sanosuke knew how Imora's mind worked.

Hell, he had known her when she was still a little child, clutching her mother's hand, and whispering her teary goodbyes to the man he respected the most and had seen be murdered.

Her father had been the closest thing to family Sanosuke had ever known, at least until he met Kenshin, Yahiko, and the Missy.

Imora had stumbled back into his life and it broke Sanosuke to a point he hated it. There was no explaining the unyielding desire to protect Imora and save her from a world that could never truly accept her.

He sighed again.

It wasn't his place.

Imora was strong; she could take care of herself. She had proven that shortly after her mother, Akane, had passed. Only fourteen years old, Imora had taken Martial Arts and other self defense classes for two years of her life before setting out to rebel against the Meiji Government.

She had lived her life alone and broken, with no one there to hold or fix her.

It wasn't until she had gotten a sign that Katsu was still alive did she even come to Tokyo.

The moment Katsu and Sanosuke had saved her from the Meiji government officials; he knew his life would never be the same again. In his mind, Sanosuke had pictured Imora Sagara as the same little girl he met so long ago.

When he saw her as a young woman…

Let's just say he was lucky his jaw hadn't dropped on the outside otherwise he'd probably be limping the rest of his life.

Sanosuke couldn't deny that Imora was beautiful. Her face was a feminine version of Captain Sagara's but the way her ebony hair spilt to the middle of her back like a waterfall made him want run his hand through those silkened strands. Her intense hazel brown eyes were not only sharp but they were intelligent as well.

She even bore the same sign that he did in order to rebel and live on to walk in her father's footsteps.

Sanosuke had nearly beaten himself senseless when he realized the truth that night after running back into Imora.

He had fallen in love with her…

But the thing was he had fallen for her when they were kids.

Captain Sagara's little girl had forever lived on in Sanosuke's heart.

And he hated himself for that. She had been the forbidden fruit of his life, but now she wasn't so forbidden.

Moreover, when Sanosuke had kissed Imora for the first time, he had realized how deeply his torn emotions had run for her. Over and over he played that memory in his mind through the sleepless nights that followed.

Sanosuke threw the ball a little too hard and hit Kenshin in the back of the head as self-loathing filled him.

He had betrayed Captain Sagara by kissing his only daughter.

His precious little girl…

Sanosuke was supposed to protect her and nothing more. They could never be anything more. Imora deserved someone more like Katsu. Someone who could keep money and have a good place to live instead of freeloading off the Missy and Kenshin; she deserved someone who didn't gamble away his life and take risks that threatened his life everyday.

Sanosuke loved her.

And he wasn't going to ruin her life because of his stupid feelings.

**---**

Imora stood up, looking up as a gentle breeze began, and sakura petals kissed her face. She looked over at Sano and saw him telling Ayame that she should go and eat her lunch with her sister before it got cold. Sano turned his head in her direction.

Their eyes met and an intense wave of embarrassment racked through Imora's entire being.

Without another word, Sano approached her slowly, now towering over her slightly underneath the shade of the tree. Sakura petals continued to dance through the air and cover the Kamiya Dojo.

"Hey, Imora, you hungry?" Sano asked quietly.

His rich voice made her desire to tell him the truth grow intensely. Fear and insecurities made her go straight into her defense mode.

"I thought I told you not to talk to me, Sanosuke!" Imora said acidly.

Sano cringed slightly.

She was still angry with him.

Her harsh words still rang in his mind.

"_You're a heartless pig, Sanosuke!"_

Was he really?

"Imora… I'm sorry…" Sano whispered.

Said girl froze at this unexpected response, "What did you just say?"

Sano closed his eyes, their headbands flying in the breeze.

"I said I'm sorry. I shouldn't've kissed you."

"Sano…"

"If you want me to never talk to you again, just say so, and it's done."

Imora timidly reached up and touched his cheek, "Sanosuke, look at me."

And when he did, she felt the connection between them grow stronger.

"I'm the one who's sorry, Sanosuke. Ever since the day we met again, I've been attacking you. Maybe because… deep down I was jealous that you were alive when my father was not." Imora confessed, "But now I feel like a stupid child for feeling that way. Please forgive me, Sano…"

Sano blinked, "Imora…"

Imora blushed and whispered, "Sano… I think I've fallen in love with you…"

No one spoke for a good minute or two. Her heart pounding in anticipation, Imora waited for Sano to respond.

He did in one way.

Sano leaned down, closed the distance, and captured Imora's lips with a kiss she wasn't sure was even real or not. Nothing seemed to make any sense anymore but it didn't need too. Sano's kiss said a thousand words but the four that stood out the most made her heart soar.

_I love you, too._

Slowly but surely, Sano's and Imora's torn emotions began to mend themselves with the moment that they shared. When Sano pulled away, Imora actually wanted to whimper.

"Imora, I've always been in love with you. Ever since the day I first saw you clutching your mother and crying for Captain Sagara to stay. Ever since the day that Katsu and I made you that doll."

Imora threw her arms around his neck. Sano picked her up by her waist and held her tightly.

"Oh, Sanosuke! I knew it; somehow, I just knew it! I mean, seriously, two boys who knew nothing about dolls spent so much time and effort making me a doll just to make me smile! I've loved you since that day!"

Sano closed his eyes, "You were my forbidden fruit back then…"

Imora laughed and whispered, "You're my forbidden fruit now… but I don't care. I want you, Sanosuke, and I want to be with you for as long as time allows us."

Closing his eyes, Sano put her back down, and kissed her again.

"You just got your wish, Imora Sagara."

"And you just got your true love, Sanosuke Sagara."

Sano agreed and then took Imora's hands, "Then answer me this, Imora." She waited, "Will you marry me?"

Imora blushed and nodded, tears burning those hazel brown eyes…

**The End**

**ETP: Aw! Sano and Imora are so cute together!**

**SF4E: I know. I like Megumi and Sano together too but personally I think he'd be better off with someone closer to him in personality, so that's why I made Imora.**

**ETP: (waving Sano x Imora 4-Ever Banner) PLEASE R&R THE CUTENESS!!**

**SF4E: Later Kenshin fans!**


End file.
